By Joyce Ann L. Rocamora/PNA
MANILA — Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has called out non-government organizations in the European Union (EU) for funding the decades-long communist insurgency in the Philippines.
“EU funding continues for the widely detested, nowhere supported, and foredoomed communist insurgency composed of the last dregs of the New Khmer Rouge, as US intelligence branded them in the late 80s,” Locsin said during the Ministerial Segment of the 62nd Session of the Commission on Narcotics and Drugs on Thursday in Vienna, Austria.
Locsin said the insurgency being waged by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) continues to threaten Philippine society and national security.
“In this endeavor, EU non-government organizations support a cause unquestionably lethal but totally unredeemed by any prospect of success,” Locsin said.
“Their generous contributions promise at best the prospect of a small and ragged parade under a cracked marble arch to the strains of a broken Hallelujah. As always, the Philippines fights its battles alone; it needs no help; it fears no opposition from any quarter; but it wouldn’t mind a little understanding,” he added.
In its official statement, the EU delegation in Manila said the bloc continues to recognize the communist group as a terrorist organization.
“The Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army are on the EU’s list of terrorist organizations since 2006 and are treated as such in all respects by the European Union at this point,” its statement read.
The EU and the US have listed the CPP-NPA as a terrorist group.
Presidential Task Force on Media Security Executive Director Undersecretary Joel Egco, who was part of the Philippine delegation that conducted a series of engagements in Brussels in February, said the National Task Force to End the Communist Insurgency created by President Rodrigo R. Duterte is set to hold several meetings to address the issue and further engage the bloc.
“Definitely, it is being discussed by the National Task Force as to what moves should be taken next. We will send them evidence, that’s the requirement they’ve set,” he told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an interview on Friday.
Belgian officials, during a meeting last month, informed the Philippine delegation that it was the “first time” that they have heard about their fundings reaching CPP-NPA’s front organizations, Egco said.
As the government takes its war against local communist armed conflict a step further, Egco said the NTF got the assurance of European officials who vowed to look into the information presented by the Philippine government on the reported funding of CPP-NPA activities.
Data presented by the Philippine delegation showed that communist front organizations receive funds from groups in the guise of marginalized and pro-poor programs.
“May seven na Belgian NGOs na nakikipag-connect sa NGOs natin dito (There are seven Belgian NGOs that are connected with some Philippine NGOs). The Armed Forces of the Philippines has a list of organizations that are fronting for CPP-NPA and when they (Belgian officials) crosschecked, the same local NGOs are in their list,” Egco said. “The status for it at present is that they are going to look for it seriously,” he added.
